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a sample autounattend.xml - working good

prathapml

Posted 09 January 2007 - 03:38 AM

prathapml

Follow the rules please :-)

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here's a working sample, made for my preferences, shared here for those who might have been having problems with their XML, & so would like to take a look at a confirmed-working sample for reference. After making use of this xml, all you need is your logic.Once i finished making it, i tried to avoid the WSIM (from WAIK) as much as possible, since WSIM needs .NET 2.0 & is complex & crashy.

Attempted to include as many commonly-used options as possible, with quite a few being setup as default, but the settings are still exposed here so that you can change it to your liking. I've provided a lot of entry points to run custom setups, etc.This is for Vista Ultimate - the other editions are subsets of it, so you just need to strip out relevant parts, if you're using Vista Business/HomePremium/etc.note - i've supplied "REMOVED" as the key, you need to replace it with your own.note2 - updated to remove superfluous tags

I read the help files re the driver paths & noticed above in your key value of "cd7c395" normally 1,2 or 3? what is the relevance of the key value to the location of the driver path?Is there an example of running the driver path directly from the DVD, like we use to?

prathapml

Posted 10 January 2007 - 11:00 AM

prathapml

Follow the rules please :-)

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Thats true, WSIM has assigned that key - and its just a random one, WSIM assigns such a key only because of the assumption that a lot of folders are going to be added & therefore single-digit numbers or alphabets are going to run out.

And well, using absolute paths would be a nightmare. There's no existing solution that i'm aware of, to get drivers from DVD (unless you mean injecting the drivers into the install.WIM, but that still gets extracted to hard disk & only then used, so its still useless).

FireGeier

Posted 10 January 2007 - 11:28 AM

FireGeier

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There's no existing solution that i'm aware of, to get drivers from DVD (unless you mean injecting the drivers into the install.WIM, but that still gets extracted to hard disk & only then used, so its still useless).

This is my experience here, too. I realy start liking the new Vista deployment, but I've no clue what they were thinking about, when programing this painful driver handling. You've three diferent methods mainly to install drivers but all of them will copy the drivers to the Windows driver store and waste time and space.

I can't imagine that's so difficult to program a method where drivers are checked before becoming integrated to the driver store.

Expect from that I do like the new Vista deployment!

Much thanks for sharing your knowledge prathapml!

Martin

EDIT:I was telling something wrong here. It seems to be possible to integrate drivers to .wim file based on a machines hadware only. I've read it in a MS ppt. There were no details about the procedure. I'm not sure if it will work for installation from DVD but it will work for WDS installs. Try to find out more ATM...

maxXPsoft

Posted 11 January 2007 - 10:27 AM

maxXPsoft

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And well, using absolute paths would be a nightmare. There's no existing solution that i'm aware of, to get drivers from DVD (unless you mean injecting the drivers into the install.WIM, but that still gets extracted to hard disk & only then used, so its still useless).

WSIM applys single numbers here each time I used it to add a driver 1,2,3Makes no difference though unless you need a special order

absolute does work without a hitch cause I been doing that since RC1First thing we got going cause drivers are important to get the sound and video right

<Path>F:\sources\pnpDrivers\1</Path>

But of course you must test and figure out which drive letter the DVD will be, kinda a no brains thingMight add i do that in the beginning and it holds all the way through to having the drivers installed when it boots the desktop. My resolution is what I want all the way through my UA setups doing it that way.Lot out there to learn on this Vista isn't it

EmRoD

Posted 18 January 2007 - 12:52 AM

EmRoD

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Hi

to add drivers to the winPE pass you have to use :

<Microsoft-Windows-PnpCustomizationsWinPE> In the Windows PE Pass

The Microsoft-Windows-PnpCustomizationsWinPE component is used to add one
or more out-of-box drivers to a Windows installation. Drivers that are located in the
path specified by DriverPaths are copied to the driver store of the Windows installation
during the windowsPE configuration pass.

You can add boot-critical as well as non-boot-critical drivers with this component to a
Windows image before it is installed.

To add them during the Offline servicing pass Use :

<Microsoft-Windows-PnpCustomizationsNonWinPE>

Those 2 ways Allows you to add Critical drivers NEEDED by the system. (Mass Strorage or network if use use net shares during installation.)

The Microsoft-Windows-PnpCustomizationsNonWinPE component is used to add one or more
out-of-box drivers to a Windows installation. Drivers that are located in the path specified by
DriverPaths are copied to the driver store of the Windows installation during the auditSystem
configuration pass. When the system runs Plug and Play, these out-of-box drivers are available
to install hardware on the system.

Tha means To install Vista on a RAID Array, you have to use WinPE to add drivers.
if you want to add video drivers, you can just use the audit pass.

I can't recommend to use AuditSystem pass to install drivers for the moment, cause you'll be prompted for the installation of unsigned drivers. And as long as we are in the state between, you would have to find a solution to suppress these prompts during audit mode. You'll not get these prompts for the same drivers, when integrating them to install.wim or installing them during WinPE pass.

I can't recommend to use AuditSystem pass to install drivers for the moment, cause you'll be prompted for the installation of unsigned drivers. And as long as we are in the state between, you would have to find a solution to suppress these prompts during audit mode. You'll not get these prompts for the same drivers, when integrating them to install.wim or installing them during WinPE pass.

However, I call you a hero EmRoD!

Vive la France, mon ami... vive la France!

Martin

-> M$ indicates a way to create "test" signature for unisgned drivers on the waik user guide

nushu

Posted 27 January 2007 - 05:35 AM

nushu

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I'd like to thank EmRoD for pointing out the %configsetroot% (i have been searching for a variable wich points to the location of the answer file for a long time) , and regarding the drivers in a ConfigurationSet i also found out something very cool , it seems that the setup process searches recursively in the driver path. If your drivers are in "%configsetroot%\Drivers\nvidia" , "%configsetroot%\Drivers\audigy" , etc... , you only need to insert "%configsetroot%\Drivers" into the answer file. I find this very useful , no need to change the answer file when you add/remove drivers
PS. this works in both windowsPE and offlineServicing.

FireGeier

Posted 27 January 2007 - 07:47 AM

FireGeier

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405 posts

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..., and regarding the drivers in a ConfigurationSet i also found out something very cool , it seems that the setup process searches recursively in the driver path. If your drivers are in "%configsetroot%\Drivers\nvidia" , "%configsetroot%\Drivers\audigy" , etc... , you only need to insert "%configsetroot%\Drivers" into the answer file. I find this very useful , no need to change the answer file when you add/remove drivers PS. this works in both windowsPE and offlineServicing.

That's right, but have a look here, too... cause this is the disadvantage of this method. So it's still a cool way installing drivers but it's NOT installing right away from stick or DVD.

nDrew

Posted 28 January 2007 - 08:18 AM

Hmm, interesting.Can you explain?Does the variable need to be set using some tool, is it accessible only thru the xml, or thru batch-files or normal win32 setup environment....

no, it seems to me that WAIK understands it...when I click "Check answer file" - there're no errors...so, i don't know how but it works. I've already installed that way Office 2007 (unattended) and nod32...

I wrote 2 lines in autounattend.xml:

%CDRoot%\soft\Office2007.exe

and

"%CDRoot%\soft\nod32v.2.7.exe" /VERYSILENT /SP- (when using command line parameters I use "" )

FireGeier

Posted 29 January 2007 - 01:10 PM

No, I've not tested it yet, but I will the next few hours. Sounds to me that nDrew tested it and it seemed to work for him.

However I'll try out and let you know!

If this should not work, I'll test to run a script from WinPE which will set a variable to use with a removable device and install drivers than during WinPE pass using this "selfmade" variable. Don't know for the moment, if setup is doing a reboot before it's installing drivers during WinPE. Cause than my idea would not work, too.

shortie

Posted 29 January 2007 - 03:46 PM

shortie

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Hi all,

I', using a local copy of my vista dvd, put the attached autounattended.xml in the root of that local copy and made a new iso with vlite (latest version). When firing up vmware and using that iso image, I always get an error saying "Windwos could no apply the Windows PE bootstrap setting specified in the uanttednded file".